Retail Sale of Alcohol, Beer and Tobacco in Uzbekistan 2026: Notification, Monthly Fee, Rates and Deadlines

As of November 2026, retail sales of alcohol, beer and tobacco in Uzbekistan do not require a licence or a "permit": the company files a notification with the district tax inspectorate through the "Litsenziya" system or my.gov.uz, and then pays a monthly fee for the right to trade. There is no fee for notifying alcohol retail; for tobacco retail the procedure passport names 50% of the base calculation value (BCV), which is UZS 220,000 at a BCV of UZS 440,000. Maximum monthly fee rates for 2026: alcohol in a shop, UZS 300,000 to UZS 1,200,000 depending on the type of locality; alcohol in catering, UZS 150,000 to UZS 600,000; beer and tobacco, UZS 44,000 each (10% of BCV from 1 September 2026). The fee is paid in advance, by the 10th of the current month. A licence is needed only for alcohol wholesale (except natural and sparkling wines and beer) and for production.

In brief

• The regime is notification, not a licence. A shop, cafe or kiosk notifies the tax inspectorate for each point of sale; the confirmation is generated automatically in the personal account (Law No. ZRU-701, art. 38; Cabinet Resolution No. 88).
• Who may trade. Alcohol and beer at retail: legal entities only. Tobacco: legal entities and sole proprietors (IP) (Law No. ZRU-844, arts. 32 and 37; Tax Code, art. 456).
• Fees in 2026: retail alcohol, UZS 1,200,000 / 840,000 / 600,000 / 300,000 a month (Tashkent / regional centres / other cities / other settlements); alcohol in catering, UZS 600,000 / 420,000 / 300,000 / 150,000; beer and tobacco, UZS 44,000 (from 1 September 2026; UZS 41,200 before). These are maximum monthly rates (Law No. ZRU-1105, Annex 9).
• Deadline. Pay in advance by the 10th of the month. A notification sent by the 20th means a full month's fee; after the 20th, the fee runs from the 1st of the next month (Tax Code, art. 460, parts 3 and 6).
• Age. Both seller and buyer must be at least 21 (Law No. ZRU-844, art. 21).
• From 1 January 2027 Presidential Decree No. UP-100 (para. 4(a)) orders the retail-alcohol fee and the catering-alcohol fee to be merged into one at 10% of BCV; the 2027 State Budget Law has not been adopted yet.

Licence or notification: what you actually need

The law has no document called a "permit to sell alcohol in a shop". A licence is required only for wholesale of alcohol (except natural and sparkling wines, beer and beer drinks) and for production; retail runs on notification. Wholesale and production are covered in our article on the alcohol licence in Uzbekistan 2026; this one is about something else: the notification, the monthly fee and the retail rules.

The list of activities run by notification is Annex 3 to Law No. ZRU-701 of 14.07.2021 "On licensing, permitting and notification procedures": tobacco retail (item 23²), alcohol retail (item 24), beer retail (item 24¹), alcohol sales by catering businesses (item 25). The common procedure is the Regulation approved by Cabinet Resolution No. 88 of 25.02.2022; the requirements for each activity are in its "passports" (annexes): No. 11 (catering), No. 19 (alcohol retail), No. 29 (tobacco retail), No. 33 (beer retail).

The confirmation is an electronic document with a QR code that the "Litsenziya" system generates automatically in your personal account (Resolution No. 88, paras. 3 and 18); holding such a confirmation makes a person a payer of the fee (Tax Code, art. 456).

Who may trade at retail

Alcohol and beer must go through a legal entity (usually an LLC); a sole proprietor may sell tobacco. In the norms we checked (ZRU-844, the Tax Code, the Resolution No. 88 passports) we found no restriction on foreign participation in the capital of the legal entity: an LLC with foreign founders notifies on the general terms. The notification is filed by an Uzbek legal entity with a tax number (STIR), so a foreign company first needs a legal entity here. On setting up an LLC, see company formation in Uzbekistan.

Requirements for the point of sale: alcohol, beer, tobacco

Common to all three products (ZRU-844, art. 21):

• sales only in stationary retail premises; no sales by hand, from trays, baskets or carts, through vending machines or from self-service shelves — only with a seller directly involved;
• no e-commerce and no delivery (except natural and sparkling wines);
• no sales on the grounds of healthcare and educational organisations, cultural institutions, sports facilities and sanatoriums, in pharmacies, or in rooms for children's goods;
• at least 100 m in a straight line from educational, sports and religious organisations; shopping complexes (markets) with a total trading area above 1,000 sq. m and fair pavilions are excepted;
• goods must carry excise stamps where required, digital identification, quality documents, and come from a supplier entitled to sell them;
• an online cash register with fiscal memory or a virtual cash register, plus a bank card terminal (arts. 32 and 37).

Alcohol retail (art. 32, part 4; passport No. 19): a trading hall used only for alcohol with a separate entrance, at least 25 sq. m in a city and at least 15 sq. m in rural areas; a separate trading section in remote mountain districts; a storeroom; no sales below the minimum price (except beer); use of electronic invoices.

Beer retail (passport No. 33): a stationary point owned or leased; not at public transport stops or metro stations, in public places and recreation areas, on the grounds of medical and sports facilities or in their canteens, or at bus stations; beer must be bought only from entities with the right of wholesale trade, against an electronic invoice. The passport does not set the 25 sq. m hall and separate entrance requirement for beer. But beer is legally an alcohol product (above 1.5%, ZRU-844, art. 3), and art. 32, part 4 on the hall area does not expressly exclude beer, so check the tax office's position before leasing a small beer outlet.

Tobacco retail (art. 37; passport No. 29): open display is prohibited — the product is shown only on the customer's request after he has seen the list; the list is posted in the trading hall in identical black letters on a white background, alphabetically, with prices and no pictures. No selling cigarettes by the piece or in packs of fewer than 20, without consumer packaging, without a health warning, in a set with other goods, or at railway stations, airports, bus stations, river ports and metro stations (duty-exempt shops excepted). Smokeless tobacco, nicotine liquids and e-cigarettes are banned outright (art. 37, part 2); nasvay is exempt from the ban.

Hours of sale: the hours for retail alcohol sales in shops are set by the Council of Ministers of Karakalpakstan and the khokimiyats of the regions and of Tashkent (ZRU-844, art. 32, part 8). Check the exact hours in your region's khokimiyat decision: we found no single nationwide limit in the norms checked.

How to file the notification: steps

• Check the premises before signing the lease. Title to the premises (ownership or lease), 100 m from schools, sports and religious organisations, hall area and separate entrance for alcohol.
• Prepare the legal entity and the cash register. An LLC with a tax number, a bank account, an online or virtual cash register, a terminal; for beer the system asks for the fiscal module number of the register (passport No. 33).
• File the notification with an electronic signature through the "Litsenziya" system (license.gov.uz) or the my.gov.uz portal (Resolution No. 88, para. 8). You give the name and form, tax number, postal and email addresses, the manager's phone, bank details, and the address and cadastral number of the place of trade. One notification covers one point.
• The system checks and accepts automatically. Data are compared with tax, cadastre and justice databases; the notification is not accepted if the data are false, if the notification fee is unpaid, if compliance is not confirmed, or if you are already in the register for the same activity (paras. 15–16). If there are no errors, the QR-coded confirmation appears in your account at once (paras. 17–18).
• Pay the monthly fee and keep proof of payment. Before sales begin, prepare labelling, goods documents and a "21+" sign.
• When you close a point, file a termination notice: there is no fee for it (para. 33), and fee accrual stops from the 1st of the next month (Tax Code, art. 460, part 5).

A notification about alcohol also covers beer: no separate beer notification is filed (passports Nos. 11 and 19 as amended by Resolution No. 840 of 30.12.2025). The reverse does not work: passport No. 33 exempts a beer seller from alcohol notifications only while it sells beer alone; spirits need their own notification and a hall under passport No. 19.

How much to pay each month: 2026 rates

The fees are listed in Tax Code art. 455, paras. 2–4: the fee for the right of retail trade in alcohol, the fee for alcohol sales by catering businesses, the fee for the right of retail trade in beer and beer drinks, and the fee for the right of retail trade in tobacco. The maximum rates for 2026 are in Annex 9 to the State Budget Law for 2026, No. ZRU-1105 of 25.12.2025:

At a BCV of UZS 440,000 (Decree No. UP-115 of 23.06.2026, from 1 September 2026) 10% is UZS 44,000; before 1 September 2026, at a BCV of UZS 412,000, the beer and tobacco fee was UZS 41,200. Over a year at the maximum rate: an alcohol shop in Tashkent, UZS 14,400,000 (1,200,000 x 12); a cafe in a regional centre, UZS 5,040,000.

How the fee works:

• These are maximum monthly rates (that is what Annex 9 calls them). The budget law gives local councils (Kengashes) no power to change them (art. 12 grants such a power only for rent rates). With several points, the fee is calculated "within the established rates" in proportion to the number of points and the territory where each is located (Tax Code, art. 460, part 4) — in our reading, for each point at the rate of its locality. Check the accrual in your taxpayer account.
• From which month. The fee is payable from the moment the notification is sent: by the 20th, for the whole current month; after the 20th, from the 1st of the next month (part 3). Example: notification on 18 November, the full November fee; on 22 November, the first month is December.
• By which day. The fee is paid monthly in advance, by the tenth of the current month (part 6). The norm says "by the tenth" without "inclusive", so it is safer to treat the 9th as the last day in your calendar. If the notification goes out after the 10th, the norm does not name the day of the first payment — confirm with the tax office.
• Each point separately: five shops, five notifications and five fees.
• Tax regime. Stationary points of retail alcohol, including beer, cannot use turnover tax (Tax Code, art. 461, part 2, para. 9); choose the regime in advance (tax compliance support). Rates and deadlines generally are in the state fees reference and the deadline calendar (these pages are in Russian only).

From 1 January 2027. Presidential Decree No. UP-100 of 26.05.2026, para. 4(a): the fee for the right of retail trade in alcohol and the fee for alcohol sales by catering businesses merge into one at 10% of BCV. At a BCV of UZS 440,000 that is UZS 44,000, but the BCV for 2027 and the 2027 budget law have not been adopted, and the decree says nothing about beer and tobacco. Plan 2027 on the norms in force in November 2026 and check the budget law when it is adopted.

Table: what you sell, what you need, what you pay

Labelling, cash register, age, seller's liability

• Excise stamps and digital identification. Alcohol without an excise stamp (except beer, natural and sparkling wines) cannot be sold (art. 31, part 5; art. 21); goods without digital identification may not be sold (art. 21). Tobacco produced in or imported into the country must carry excise stamps (art. 36, part 9).
• Cash register. Alcohol and tobacco retail runs with an online cash register with fiscal memory and/or a virtual register and a bank card terminal (art. 32, part 6; art. 37, part 12). For hotels and catering, from 1 June 2026 Decree No. UP-100 (para. 3(a)(i)) allows cash payments for alcohol and tobacco.
• Age checks. If a buyer looks under 21, the seller must ask for a document confirming identity and age and, without one, refuse the sale (art. 21, part 2). The point must display a notice that sales under 21 are prohibited and health warnings (ZRU-844, art. 22; passports Nos. 11, 19, 29, 33).

Liability for violations

No notification. Code of Administrative Offences (CAO), art. 165, part 2 — carrying on an activity subject to notification without notifying: a fine of 5 to 10 BCV for citizens (UZS 2,200,000 – 4,400,000) and 10 to 15 BCV for officials (UZS 4,400,000 – 6,600,000). For legal entities the amounts are in Annex 4 to ZRU-701: alcohol retail and alcohol sales in catering without notification, 25 BCV (UZS 11,000,000). That annex has no line for beer or tobacco retail (as amended by ZRU-1154, from 24.09.2026), so we do not state a legal-entity fine for those activities.

Relief. An offender who within 15 days pays 50% of the fine, or within 30 days 70%, and files the notification, is released from the remainder (ZRU-701, art. 55, part 2).

Illegal circulation. CAO art. 186¹: illegally putting alcohol and tobacco into circulation, a fine of 50 to 100 BCV (UZS 22,000,000 – 44,000,000) with confiscation; selling banned tobacco products and e-cigarettes, 100 to 200 BCV (UZS 44,000,000 – 88,000,000).

Suspension. The tax inspectorate may suspend the activity for up to 10 working days if the passport requirements are breached (Resolution No. 88, paras. 21–22); termination goes through a court, including after breaches twice or more in a year or one gross breach where they harmed citizens' life and health, the rights of persons, public safety or the environment (para. 35). Passports Nos. 11, 19 and 33 mark as "gross", for example, trading without an online cash register, without labelling, selling to persons under 21, and an alcohol hall that does not meet the requirements; passport No. 29 (tobacco) has no such marks.

Common mistakes

• Signing the lease before checking the point. First the 100 m distance, hall area and separate entrance (for alcohol), then the contract.
• Trying to sell alcohol and beer as an IP. An IP may sell tobacco, not alcohol or beer.
• Forgetting the fee. It runs from the moment of notification even if sales have not begun: before the 20th, for the whole month.
• Paying on the 10th. The norm says "by the 10th", not "inclusive".
• Not filing a termination notice when closing a point. The fee keeps accruing until the activity is terminated.

How Pactum helps

• We check the point and premises before you lease: distances, area, separate entrance, type of activity, and whether you need a notification or a licence.
• We register an LLC for alcohol or beer retail, from UZS 1,500,000; details on the company formation page.
• We prepare and file the notifications for each point, track fee deadlines and close points when activity ends. We quote the price after reviewing the task.
• We help choose a tax regime for a shop or cafe, from UZS 1,000,000 (tax compliance support), and support tax audits, from UZS 4,000,000 (audit page).

Acceptance of the notification, suspension and fines are decided by the tax authority, so we do not promise an outcome. The first step is a lawyer consultation: 60 minutes, UZS 300,000, credited toward the cost of the service. Phone +998 78 113 81 01, Telegram, info@pactum.uz, office: Tashkent, Afrosiyob St., 21.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a licence for retail alcohol sales in a shop?

No. Retail alcohol requires not a licence but a notification to the tax inspectorate for each point (ZRU-701, Annex 3, item 24; ZRU-844, art. 32, part 3). A licence is needed for wholesale and production.

How much does the right to sell alcohol in a shop cost in 2026?

The fee for the right to trade is up to UZS 1,200,000 a month in Tashkent, up to UZS 840,000 in Nukus and regional centres, up to UZS 600,000 in other cities and up to UZS 300,000 in other settlements (ZRU-1105, Annex 9). There is no fee for the alcohol-retail notification itself.

Can an IP sell alcohol or beer?

No. Only legal entities sell alcohol and beer at retail (ZRU-844, art. 32; Tax Code, art. 456, part 4). Tobacco may be sold by both a legal entity and an IP (ZRU-844, art. 37, part 5).

How much does beer and tobacco retail cost?

UZS 44,000 a month per point (10% of BCV at a BCV of UZS 440,000, from 1 September 2026). There is no fee for a beer notification; for a tobacco notification the passport names 50% of BCV, UZS 220,000.

By what date must the fee be paid?

In advance, by the 10th of the current month (Tax Code, art. 460, part 6). The norm does not say "inclusive", so pay by the 9th. If you notify by the 20th, the first month is paid in full.

Do I need a separate notification for beer if I already sell alcohol?

No. Those who have notified alcohol retail or alcohol sales in catering do not notify beer separately (passports Nos. 11 and 19).

From what age can alcohol and tobacco be sold and bought?

From 21, for both buyer and seller (ZRU-844, art. 21). If a buyer looks younger, the seller must ask for an age document.

What will alcohol retail cost in 2027?

Not yet known. Decree No. UP-100 (para. 4(a)) orders the retail-alcohol and catering-alcohol fees to be merged from 1 January 2027 at 10% of BCV, but the 2027 budget law and the Tax Code amendments have not been adopted.

Sources

• Tax Code, arts. 455, 456, 460, 461 (fees for the right of retail trade in alcohol, beer and tobacco)
• Law No. ZRU-844 on restricting the distribution and consumption of alcohol and tobacco products, arts. 3, 21, 22, 31, 32, 36, 37
• Law No. ZRU-701 on licensing, permitting and notification procedures, arts. 38, 55, Annexes 3 and 4
• Cabinet Resolution No. 88 of 25.02.2022, Unified Regulation, passports Nos. 11, 19, 29, 33
• Law No. ZRU-1105 on the State Budget for 2026, Annex 9 (in Uzbek)
• Decree No. UP-100 of 26.05.2026, paras. 3, 4
• Code of Administrative Offences, arts. 165, 186¹
• Decree No. UP-115 of 23.06.2026, BCV UZS 440,000
• Information system "Litsenziya"
• my.gov.uz portal